Word: politburo
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Author Fischer attributes this fear to a variety of causes. Among them: 1) U.S. control of the atomic bomb; 2) the Politburo's realization that Russia's wealth in men and materials was terribly depleted in 1941-45; 3) the Marxist theory that Western capitalism must turn to war sooner or later as a solution of its own economic problems...
Policeman's Mission. Who is Beria? The known facts of his life could be handily engraved on a police badge. Beria is one of the 14 members of the all powerful Politburo; he still supervises the secret police, which he controlled directly for nine years when it was called the NKVD. Every Soviet citizen knows his name, knows that he is a Georgian, like Stalin; that he is 47 years old; that he wields great and mysterious power. But Russians and Americans both might learn a lot more about Deputy Beria and his Berlin mission through one revealing anecdote...
...Last week Stalin called a meeting of the Politburo and Orgburo at Sochi, and said it was time to name his successors for all party and Government posts. Pursuing his idea to retire (taken in 1945), he wanted the mechanism of power transferred before his death to the form it will take when he is gone...
When Stalin celebrated his 60th birthday on Dec. 21, 1939, every member of the Politburo but Zhdanov had some variation of the congratulatory tribute to "our father and teacher, our bright sun, hope and glory of peoples" printed in all Russian newspapers. Zhdanov was not even allowed at the party...
...Gang. On the official Politburo list (more important than gorodki scores) Zhdanov now stands fourth-after Stalin, Molotov and the hated Lavrenty Beria, head of the secret police. Of those below Zhdanov, his most serious rival is Georgi Malenkov, 44, a brilliant backstairs intriguer. Others are Anastas Mikoyan, the Armenian foreign trade chief, who enjoys Stalin's personal favor but has little party following, and a dark horse, Nikolai Bulganin, the political boss of the Army. Molotov, Beria and Malenkov are loosely grouped as the reactionary anti-Westerners. But as long as Stalin lives the whole gang will stick...